Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei meets UK Chancellor George Osborne

Huawei has announced that Huawei CEO and Founder Ren Zhengfei has met George Osborne, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen. The Chancellor toured the Huawei R&D laboratories and chaired a meeting of UK high-tech companies visiting China.

At the meeting with George Osborne, Ren Zhengfei confirmed that a new R&D centre will be opened as part of Huawei’s US$2 billion investment commitment to the UK. Currently, Huawei employs over 80 R&D engineers in its existing UK R&D office in Ipswich. Following today’s announcement, Huawei will employ a total of 300 staff in high-tech R&D positions in the UK by 2017. The total investment in the new centre will be US$200 million, with research focusing on optoelectronics, device design, software development and other fields, benefiting Huawei’s customers in 140 markets around the world. The location of the new R&D centre will be announced at a later date.

UK Tech trade delegation visits Huawei HQ

During George Osborne’s visit, Huawei hosted a delegation of 20 UK high-tech companies. The delegation, visiting the Huawei campus as part of a three-day visit to China, also met teams from Huawei R&D, procurement, corporate development and other departments, to explore more opportunities for commercial cooperation. A number of the high-tech companies comprising the delegation already work closely with Huawei, including BT.

George Osborne, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: “One of the most exciting opportunities for collaboration between Britain and China in the next step of our relationship is between our cutting edge, high-tech companies. So I am delighted to be visiting Huawei’s headquarters with leaders of some of Britain’s most entrepreneurial tech companies to welcome Huawei’s investment into the UK.”

Ren Zhengfei, Huawei Founder and CEO, said: “I am proud to welcome the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to our headquarters in Shenzhen. The UK is home to some of the best high-tech professionals in the world. Their creativity is a major asset to our R&D efforts, helping us produce the most advanced and competitive telecoms and broadband services available. Combined with an open and free-trade economy, this makes it a very good investment environment for Huawei. I have every confidence in Huawei’s future in the UK.”